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Rock Safety

Cuttlefish

I have some stuff that I would like to put into my tank(free stuff from relatives ), but don't know if it is suitable or safe for an octopus. The list is as follows: Big piece of petrified wood(1 ft x 4 in), two halves of an abalone shell, a nautilus shell (would have to be secured to the bottom to prevent floating) some sand dollars, sea urchin shell (looks like a dome with a hole on the bottom of it and a small hole on the top, has little, blunt spikes all over it, bumps really), dead coral, and some other stuffs. I most likely won't put a lot of this stuff in there, but I want to know, should I ever decide to, what would be safe for an octopus and what wouldn't be.

Cthulhu

I would avoid the drift/petrified wood unless you are sure there are no organics and no copper.

After you put the items in a reef tank, they will ultimately contribute to the bio filtration but should be fully decontaminated initially. Traditional methods (prior to using live rock) to purify anything coming from the ocean was to soak it in bleach, dry it, soak it in dechlor, dry it and the put it in the tank. Recommended periods vary. Here is a discussion of the process on Reef Central. Any rock or old coral should be treated this way to ensure you are not poluting the tank.

The urchin test will not likely survive bleaching but it is not likely to survive an octopus either, they become quite brittle. The sand dollar tests will also become brittle but fair better than the urchin's with the bleach and possibly with the octopus if it is placed in the sand. Neither will be a problem for the tank or the octopus and will become part of the substrate as long as you ensure they carry no pollutants. It will be very important to be sure you have completely dechlorinated the nautilus shell because of its inner chambers.

Cuttlefish

Okay, I won't put the petrified wood in there, but I'll bleach/dechlorinate everything else. The nautilus shell's inner chambers seem sealed off (I'm not familiar with the physiology of the nautilus), how do I make sure that it is fully chlorination? And thanks for the quick reply!

Cthulhu

As I understand it, as the nautilus grows it evacuates the prior chamber and seals it off with shell but a chord (siphuncle) remains attached to the farthest part and passes through all the old chambers to allow buoyancy regulation. In a dead animal, this will appear as a round hold (it shows in fossils and is one way to determine ancient cephalopods) So there will be a small hole that goes all the way through the shell but no good way to drain it or ensure chlorine has evaporated (the reason for my concerned mention). Rethinking it, I don't know that I would use chlorine at all with something like this but don't have a good suggestion on how to clean it internally for aquarium use.

Cthulhu

The problem is retention of anything (especially anything already there) inside the shell. You might try a post on Reef Central for some suggestions as it is really a reef tank problem and not specific to cephs so the audience will be wider and likely have more ideas.

Cuttlefish

It's not that important, I probably just won't put it in there, but what about if I injected the siphuncle with salt water so a to release any air, then seal it with silicone? This would seal the in we chambers completely, so nothing would come out. Then the rest could be cleaned via bleach. Think that would work?